The six-day commemoration of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley has created teachable — and touchy — moments for S.C. educators.

On the one hand, this week’s events in Charleston offer a living, breathing history lesson on the Civil War, the Confederacy and South Carolina’s part in it, teachers say. It fits perfectly with the state and Civil War history lessons that third-, fourth- and eighth-graders are getting right now.

On the other hand, educators don’t want to laud the achievements of Confederate soldiers whose political views are offensive to many or praise a war effort that included slavery.

“It is a very sensitive area,” said Jeff Fouste, an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Gibbes Middle School in Columbia. “One person’s heritage is another person’s hate, dislike. It’s a very fine line teachers walk.”

Fouste’s approach: Teach both the good and the bad.

“I tell them that this is a look at S.C. history. It cannot be denied. This really happened,” said Fouste, whose students are all African-American. “But at the same time, there were close to 400,000 South Carolinians held in bondage.”

While the state Department of Education dictates what U.S. and S.C. history lessons students receive, it doesn’t weigh in on individual topics such as the Hunley or specific battles.

Still, some state leaders are hoping teachers will take advantage of the newfound popularity of the Hunley.

“It’s happening right now, and you should teach it and let students form their own opinions,” said James Bryan, education associate for social studies for the state Department of Education. “That’s what we want students to be able to do, to form their own opinions.”

While the Hunley crew believed in a cause foreign to many people today, the crew’s place in history shouldn’t be ignored in the classroom, Bryan said.

“They (the Hunley crew members) were definitely pioneers, and you have to look at it from that standpoint, and what they did had a direct impact on the rest of history,” Bryan said.

Another approach: concentrate on the technological aspect of the submarine.

Several teachers said that’s what makes the Hunley interesting, so they centered lessons on the construction of the hand-cranked submarine, which was guided by a hand-controlled rudder and dive planes. They’re talking about how it accomplished its mission using a 135-pound torpedo and about the hypotheses on why it sank.

And since many students are discussing the Civil War this time of year, the Hunley fits perfectly into larger lessons about daily life in the 1860s, the blockade of the ports during the Civil War and South Carolina’s agriculture-based economy.

Susan McCarthy, an instructional technology specialist at Nelson Elementary School in Richland 2, let students watch live webcasts of the sub’s excavation.

And when students called the crew members heroes, McCarthy didn’t discourage or encourage them.

“I told them that whether or not we believe as they believe, (the crew members) were willing to die for it,” she said.

The Hunley isn’t the only touchy topic that history teachers must take on. Many historical events have religious, political and other controversial undertones.

“(Teaching history) is kind of a minefield,” said Bill Kiesling, principal at Batesburg-Leesville Elementary School and also a naval historian and a former history teacher.

“But teachers have to do it so they (students) can understand the complexities of human relationships,” he said.

Reach Smith at (803) 771-8378 or gnsmith@thestate.com